Before Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced free iPhone 4 bumpers, he offered a very brief look inside Apple's antenna testing labs.

A phone is positioned for testing. (Credit: Apple)

During Friday's iPhone 4 press conference, Apple CEO Steve Jobs offered a very brief glimpse inside immense padded rooms that make up the company's antenna testing and design labs.

According to Jobs, and to statistics posted later on Apple's website, the labs consist of 17 antenna characterisation, or "anechoic", chambers that are used to measure overall antenna performance. Various equipment simulates cellular towers, Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth devices and GPS satellites, and the phones are tested in a variety of positions including free space and next to human dummies and real people. The carbon foam on the walls eliminates signal bounce, and a copper seal on the door keeps out radio interference. The whole thing cost US$100 million and Apple says it is staffed by 18 PhD scientists and engineers.

Phones are tested with human subjects. (Credit: Apple)

Here are a couple of photos of the labs courtesy of Apple. Our favourite is the guy sitting in the high chair in the middle of the big ring. If this were a bizarre tropical island, we'd swear we were watching Lost. For an explanatory video, click on over to Apple's site.

Via CNET